The present invention generally relates to ozone synthesis, more particularly, to generating and storing ozone.
Ozone (O3) is a form of oxygen that has three atoms per molecule rather than two atoms as found in bimolecular oxygen. Each ozone molecule decomposes into molecular oxygen (O2), releasing an extra oxygen atom. This extra oxygen atom is a strong oxidizing agent and known as a potent bactericide and viricide.
Conventionally, ozone gas is produced as needed at the point of use rather than being produced beforehand and stored, or being purchased and transported to the point of use. This is mainly because ozone gas constantly decays back to oxygen. For instance, the half-life of ozone in a clean stainless steel tank is on the order of a few days at room temperature. As such, for many applications where a constant and/or continuous flow of ozone gas is needed, the ozone gas is produced near or at the point of use. However, there are applications that require a periodic or intermittent use of ozone gas, some requiring a large quantity of ozone gas with a relatively short time notice. For instance, a typical ozone generating system may require several minutes to fill a conventional batch type sterilization chamber, which can limit the operational speed of the entire sterilization system.
In a typical batch type sterilization process using ozone, a sterilization chamber is first loaded with the articles to be sterilized. Then, the chamber is evacuated and then backfilled with ozone. Conventionally, the chamber is filled with ozone as it is produced by an ozone generator. The time required to backfill the chamber with ozone is determined by the rate of production of the ozone, which is in turn determined by the size of the ozone generator. Because backfill time is part of the overall cycle time, it is desirable for the backfill time to be as short as possible. Even a very large conventional ozone generator may require several minutes to fill a typical sterilizer chamber.
Therefore, for certain applications, there is a strong need for a system that can generate and store ozone gas and maintain an intended concentration of ozone during storage so that a sufficient quantity of ozone can be immediately provided to the point of use upon demand.